Shadow Pricing of Electric Power Interruptions for Distribution System Operators in Finland

Increasing distributed generation and intermittency, along with the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, pose a serious challenge supply security in the electric power sector. Understanding the costs of interruption is vital for enhancing power system infrastructure and planning the distribution grid. Customer rights and demand response are additional reasons to study the value of power reliability. We make use of the directional distance function and shadow pricing method for a case study from Finland with the aim of calculating the cost of one minute of power interruption from the perspective of the distribution network operator. The sample consists of 78 distribution network operators from Finland based on cost and network information between 2013 and 2015

A modeling framework for assessing adaptation options of Finnish agriculture to climate variability and change

To enable ex ante assessment of alternative adaptation strategies for Finnish agriculture at multiple scales, MTT Agrifood Research Finland and partner institutes recently launched a project Integrated Modeling of Agrifood Systems (IMAGES).The project aims at developing and evaluating different component (economic and biophysical) models and link them in an integrated modeling framework

Palvelujen tuotteistamisen käsikirja - Osallistavia menetelmiä palvelujen kehittämiseen

Tuotteistaminen on ihmisten ajattelutapojen ja toiminnan muuttamista. Sitä ei voi täysin ulkoistaa tai eristää niistä ihmisistä, jotka ovat muutoksen kohteena – asiakkaista ja työntekijöistä. Tässä käsikirjassa on kuvattu ohjeita ja esimerkkejä osallistavasta tuotteistamisesta. Se täydentää jo olemassa olevia tuotteistamisen malleja kiinnittämällä huomiota ensisijaisesti siihen, miten palveluun osallistuvien toimijoiden kesken luodaan yhteinen ymmärrys palvelusta tuotteistamisen avulla. Käsikirja tarjoaa vinkkejä siihen, miten luoda palvelusta elävä ja toimiva kokonaisuus niin palvelun tuottajille kuin asiakkaille. Siinä kuvataan osallistavan tuotteistamisen malli sekä annetaan vinkkejä osallistujien valintaan ja osallistumisen tavan suunniteluun. Käsikirjassa esitellään 17 osallistavaa menetelmää palvelujen tuotteistamisen eri vaiheisiin ja 10 esimerkkiä työpajoista, joissa menetelmiä on sovellettu. Käsikirja perustuu kolmivuotisen LEAPS (Leadership in the Productisation of Services) -tutkimusprojektin tuloksiin. Käsikirjassa esitetyt menetelmät kehitettiin yhteistyössä projektin tutkijoiden ja yritysten kanssa. Vaikka menetelmien periaatteet ovat tunnistettavissa useissa palvelujen ja työyhteisöjen kehittämisen otteissa, näitä menetelmiä ei ole aiemmin sovellettu tuotteistamiseen

Clinical Alarms in a Gynaecological Surgical Unit: A Retrospective Data Analysis

Alarm fatigue refers to the desensitisation of medical staff to patient monitor clinical alarms, which may lead to slower response time or total ignorance of alarms and thereby affects patient safety. The reasons behind alarm fatigue are complex; the main contributing factors include the high number of alarms and the poor positive predictive value of alarms. The study was performed in the Surgery and Anaesthesia Unit of the Women’s Hospital, Helsinki, by collecting data from patient monitoring device clinical alarms and patient characteristics from surgical operations. We descriptively analysed the data and statistically analysed the differences in alarm types between weekdays and weekends, using chi-squared, for a total of eight monitors with 562 patients. The most common operational procedure was caesarean section, of which 149 were performed (15.7%). Statistically significant differences existed in alarm types and procedures between weekdays and weekends. The number of alarms produced was 11.7 per patient. In total, 4698 (71.5%) alarms were technical and 1873 (28.5%) were physiological. The most common physiological alarm type was low pulse oximetry, with a total of 437 (23.3%). Of all the alarms, the number of alarms either acknowledged or silenced was 1234 (18.8%). A notable phenomenon in the study unit was alarm fatigue. Greater customisation of patient monitors for different settings is needed to reduce the number of alarms that do not have clinical significance

The prognostic value of extramural venous invasion in preoperative MRI of rectal cancer patients

Aim This study aimed to examine the prognostic value of extramural venous invasion observed in preoperative MRI on survival and recurrences. Method In total, 778 rectal cancer patients were evaluated in multidisciplinary meetings in Helsinki University Hospital during the years 2016-2018. 635 patients met the inclusion criteria of stage I-III disease and were intended for curative treatment at the time of diagnosis. 128 had extramural venous invasion in preoperative MRI. Results The median follow-up time was 2.5 years. In a univariate analysis extramural venous invasion was associated with poorer disease-specific survival (hazard ratio [HR] 2.174, 95% CI 1.118-4.224, P = 0.022), whereas circumferential margin = T3c or nodal positivity were not. Disease recurrence occurred in 17.3% of the patients: 13.4% had metastatic recurrence only, 1.7% mere local recurrence and 2.2% both metastatic and local recurrence. In multivariate analysis, extramural venous invasion (HR 1.734, 95% CI 1.127-2.667, P = 0.012) and nodal positivity (HR 1.627, 95% CI 1.071-2.472, P = 0.023) were risk factors for poorer disease-free survival (DFS). Circumferential marginPeer reviewe

Astrocyte alterations in neurodegenerative pathologies and their modeling in human induced pluripotent stem cell platforms

Astrocytes are the most abundant cell type in the brain. They were long considered only as passive support for neuronal cells. However, recent data have revealed many active roles for these cells both in maintenance of the normal physiological homeostasis in the brain as well as in neurodegeneration and disease. Moreover, human astrocytes have been found to be much more complex than their rodent counterparts, and to date, astrocytes are known to actively participate in a multitude of processes such as neurotransmitter uptake and recycling, gliotransmitter release, neuroenergetics, inflammation, modulation of synaptic activity, ionic balance, maintenance of the blood–brain barrier, and many other crucial functions of the brain. This review focuses on the role of astrocytes in human neurodegenerative disease and the potential of the novel stem cell-based platforms in modeling astrocytic functions in health and in disease.Peer reviewe

Individual tree biomass equations or biomass expansion factors for assessment of carbon stock changes in living biomass - A comparative study

AbstractSignatory countries to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its supplementary Kyoto Protocol (KP) are obliged to report greenhouse gas emissions and removals. Changes in the carbon stock of living biomass should be reported using either the default or stock change methods of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) under the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry sector. Traditionally, volume estimates are used as a forestry measures. Changes in living biomass may be assessed by first estimating the change in the volume of stem wood and then converting this volume to whole tree biomass using biomass expansion factors (BEFs). However, this conversion is often non-trivial because the proportion of stem wood increases with tree size at the expense of branches, foliage, stump and roots. Therefore, BEFs typically vary over time and their use may result in biased estimates. The objective of this study was to evaluate differences between biomass estimates obtained using biomass equations and BEFs with particular focus on uncertainty analysis. Assuming that the development of tree fractions in different ways can be handled by individual biomass equations, BEFs for standing stock were shown to overestimate the biomass sink capacity (Sweden). Although estimates for BEFs derived for changes in stock were found to be unbiased, the estimated BEFs varied substantially over time (0.85–1.22ton CO2/m3). However, to some extent this variation may be due to random sampling errors rather than actual changes. The highest accuracy was obtained for estimates based on biomass equations for different tree fractions, applied to data from the Swedish National Forest Inventory using a permanent sample design (estimated change in stock 1990–2005: 420million tons CO2, with a standard error amounting to 26.7million tons CO2) Many countries have adopted such a design combined with the stock change method for reporting carbon stock changes under the UNFCCC/KP

Newly discovered diversity in the tropical fern genus Metaxya based on morphology and molecular phylogenetic analyses

For a long time, the genus Metaxya was treated as monotypic with a single species, M. rostrata. A second species, M. lanosa, was described in 2001 on the basis of morphological features and rbcL gene sequences with a suggestion that the genus may contain even more species. We have now systematically compared morphological traits in a large number of Metaxya specimens collected in tropical America. We have also carried out phylogenetic analyses of 32 Metaxya and 5 outgroup specimens based on four markers of the plastid genome (rbcL, matK, and rps4 genes, and trnG-trnR intergenic spacer). Based on the morphological variation among the Metaxya specimens, we accept six distinct species, three of which we describe as new in this paper. Molecular phylogenetic analyses resolved five distinct clades. Four of these corresponded with the morphologically delineated species (M. contamanensis sp. nov., M. elongata sp. nov., M. lanosa, and M. parkeri). The fifth clade contained all the individuals of the remaining two species, of which M. rostrata was rendered paraphyletic by M. scalaris sp. nov. being nested within it. Since M. scalaris was resolved as monophyletic, and the two are clearly distinguishable morphologically, we consider them true species despite the incomplete genetic differentiation.</p

Different berries and berry fractions have various but slightly positive effects on the associated variables of metabolic diseases on overweight and obese women

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